Center Stage

UNT to premiere Jake Heggie’s “Ahab Symphony” Wednesday evening

It started at a rehearsal for Jake Heggie’s opera Moby-Dick, which the Dallas Opera premiered three years ago.

“I was invited by one of the composers at UNT to talk to the students,” Heggie recalls. “While I was there, the dean, Jim Scott, mentioned that they had this artist residency, and they wanted to put my name forward. The deal was that I would be in residence off and on a total of six weeks during the academic year, working with students, and that I would write a piece.”

The residency did happen. And on Wednesday evening, at the Murchison Performing Arts Center in Denton, the University of North Texas College of Music will present the second part of the deal: Heggie’s Ahab Symphony, for solo tenor, chorus and orchestra. David Itkin will conduct the UNT Symphony Orchestra and Grand Chorus, with tenor Richard Croft. Also on the program will be Mendelssohn’s Calm Sea and Prosperous Voyage Overture and the Four Sea Interludes from Britten’s Peter Grimes.

As the title implies, the four-movement, 26-minute work is an outgrowth of Heggie’s opera, itself an adaptation of Herman Melville’s novel about a man’s tormented quest for a great white whale. It focuses particularly on the character of Captain Ahab, and Heggie figured there was more to explore.

Editor Picks

Comments

To post a comment, log into your chosen social network and then add your comment below. Your comments are subject to our Terms of Service and the privacy policy and terms of service of your social network. If you do not want to comment with a social network, please consider writing a letter to the editor.

Ad:TopLeftBlog

Ad: Position1

Archives Title

Archives

ArchivesAbout this blog

About this Blog

News, reviews, nuggets and tidbits from the local arts scene, including literature, theater, classical music, opera, dance and the visual arts.